Bolsonaro Grants Pardon to Daniel Silveira after Supreme Court Conviction
President cited freedom of expression and commotion in society to benefit deputy
Apr.22.2022 12:44PM
President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) yesterday granted a pardon to congressman Daniel Silveira (PTB-RJ), sentenced by the Federal Supreme Court to 8 years and nine months in prison in an initial closed regime for verbally attacking and threatening the court justices.
The pardon extinguishes the penalty. To justify it, he mentioned freedom of expression, "an essential pillar of society," and supposed commotion at the conviction of his ally, by 10 votes to 1, the day before, when the Supreme Court still asked for the impeachment and fined the deputy. The defense says that Silveira's trial was political.
The congressman's conviction and the pardon are the latest in the clash between the Supreme Court and the president, who mobilized coup acts in September 2021 with the court as the main target.
Supreme Court Justices criticized the decision and told Folha that there will be judicial questioning - in theory, however, the pardon is an instrument shielded from the magistrates' resources. The presidential measure does not change Silveira's ineligibility.
More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2022/04/bolsonaro-grants-pardon-to-daniel-silveira-after-supreme-court-conviction.shtml
= new reply since forum marked as read
By Mauricio Savarese | AP
Today at 10:35 a.m. EDT
FILE - Lawmaker Daniel Silveira, who was elected to his first term representing the Social Liberal Party, points to his phone showing an image spoofing jailed, former President President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his swearing-in ceremony at the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, Brazil, Feb. 1, 2019. President Jair Bolsonaro issued a pardon late Thursday April 21, 2022 after the Supreme Court sentenced Silveira for inciting physical attacks on the court’s justices and authorities, stripping him of his Congressional seat and barring him from running for any office in October’s elections. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
SAO PAULO — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued a pardon Thursday night for a recently convicted ally, setting off backlash from adversaries claiming the president is overstepping his constitutional bounds and once again undermining the Supreme Court.
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Wednesday convicted lawmaker Daniel Silveira by 10 votes to 1 for inciting physical attacks on the court’s justices as well as other authorities. He was also stripped of his seat in Congress and barred from running for any office in October’s elections.
Bolsonaro said during a live broadcast his decision “is necessary for the nation to walk on the paths determined by the constitution.” “Freedom of speech is an essential foundation of our society,” the Brazilian president said. Later, his decree insisted Silveira was convicted unduly.
. . .
The president has had a fractious relationship with the top court’s justices since he took office in January 2019. More recently, he has targeted those who also lead the country’s top electoral authority, claiming without any evidence that the Brazilian electronic voting system could be rigged.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/brazils-bolsonaro-pardons-lawmaker-convicted-at-top-court/2022/04/22/7266c842-c248-11ec-b5df-1fba61a66c75_story.html
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As you may remember, Bolsonaro, during his Presidential campaign always made a point for the cameras to point his first finger and thumb in the shape of a "handgun" to celebrate his murderous views of minorities, including indigenous Brazilians, as he portrays them all as criminals who don't deserve to live, and shouldn't be respected.
(Good ol' boys yukking it up with handgun-totin' Bolsonaro)
